Jeff Balazs

Merle; Thanks again for all your help. When I took the carb apart this morning the check ball was missing in the accelerator pump. Not sure what happened there.... gremlins maybe. At any rate I checked everything out and went to the same hole setting on the linkage you had. That and some fiddling with the idle and it seems pretty darn good. Now I need to put new brake lines on before I can actually get it to move on it's own. Of course there is a ton of other items that need attention.....but it does feel like a major milestone just the same. Jeff

Tim; You are on and I look forward to it. I promise I won't mention that topic. Can't speak for that other guy though................... Jeff

Thanks. It has got quite a lot to do before it is roadworthy......but it made it past a huge hurdle. God only knows that last time it actually ran. I'm guessing 20 -30 years???? Ran it again for about 15 minutes and this time was able to get the idle adjusted properly. Very cool. Does not smoke at all. I was surprised at how quiet it was even without a muffler. I have one small oil leak at the rear valve cover but that is it.....everything else seems to be holding fine. Wow!!!! Still have a lot to do and check but it is all good. Jeff

Well guy's it runs. And not too bad. Still got to fuss some more with the carb, etc but I ran it twice for about 10 minutes. No leaks and no funny noises. I am pretty happy. :D:D Thanks again to all of you for your help and assistance to date. It has been great. Jeff

Tim; Yes....yes and yes. Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) owned AJS & Matchless and several others including Norton. AJS were a dominant force in all forms of competition in the pre & post war years. The first post war 500 cc Road racing world champ AJS Porcupine. Arguably the most valuable motorcycle in the world today. Where they really shined was the various forms of reliability trials. World champs over and over. Six day trials especially the Scottish were the ultimate test ground for manufacturers of the day. A performance by the great Gordon Jackson during the Scottish 6 days trial is their crowning achievement. One point off (one dab) in 6 days a feat that has never been equaled. Yes they were heavy by today's standard......but they were essentially the same machine you would buy to get to work on or fit a sidecar and haul the family around with. Jeff

Tim; Here you go..... and there are some parallels between Dodge and AJS/Matchless. Started by brothers......Hemi combustion chambers.....known for engineering skills.... Jeff

Merle & Tim; Yes. I discovered them about 30 years ago when trying to solve a fouling problem with a V6 outboard. Once I found the correct plug the improvement was nothing short of a miracle. Interestingly about the time I used them to solve my problem the engine manufacturer switched to them as well. When I started digging into it and talking to mechanics it seemed that they were producing a full range of products that actually ran within the stated heat range when others were less accurate or did not offer a complete tuners selection. I do know that they offer several slightly different (hot to cold) heat range options for most applications. This can be quite useful in tuning away some problems. As an example SBC's are prone to fouling the rear cylinders as they wear. I know for a fact that going up a heat range on those two plugs will buy you quite a bit of time. I have a 1949 AJS 500 single that I have built to use as an desert play bike. It has a chain driven magneto, trials gearing and truly massive flywheels. Riding it is sort of like having a locomotive between your legs. With a NGK BR6HIX Iriduim plug in it, it will lug down close to 100 rpm and still produce crisp throttle response and usable power. I can even use the manual advance lever as a type of soft throttle at these low speeds. Getting one of these engines to produce power at around 200 rpm is not a problem but dropping below that is difficult. It took a while to find the right combination of settings, etc... but the end result is truly unique and very fun to ride. Jeff

Thanks again Merle; I will take a close look at this tomorrow. For what it is worth....I have had decent luck with AC plugs over the years but by far I have gotten my best results using NGK plugs. They seem to have the right plug for every application and when you find it you are set. Jeff

Thanks Merle; Mine is set up in the hole on the opposite end of the link. As I was going through the carb instructions it said that pump travel should be 3/8". When i tried each hole in the link that was the hole that ended up with 3/8" travel on the pump. The others were more than that. So.......I guess I can try each hole and see what happens. One thing that is bothering me about this carb ..... when I open the throttle I can't detect a spray of fuel into the throat. Is that normal? Most carbs I have worked on that seems to be the norm......this one no. Jeff

Merle; Thank you. I am not certain if it has anything to do with my starting issue but I do have a question about this fluid drive carb. There is some extra external linkage associated with the dashpot. Lever #14-41-22 has three holes in it for positioning the actuator linkage. Which hole are you using on your truck? Right now I have mine in the outboard (furthest from the cylinder head) hole. This arrangement is tied to accelerator pump linkage and seemed to give the correct activation. I am really uncertain if this might be causing the problem I am having getting this started. Any thoughts? Thanks again for your assistance, Jeff

Hank; I don't know that I would describe it as a tough time. As we all know getting one of these back into decent shape after it has sat for decades is a fair amount of work. It is made more problematic by my lack of experience with Mopar products. By the time you throw in delays and false starts sometimes those little "details" get lost. I do know that I should have taken more photos of the carb and linkage before I took it apart.... oh well...what is done is done. It ended up being apart far longer than I expected. Jeff

Perhaps I should have worded my question differently. I should have asked if the plugs I had were in the ballpark of heat ranges for one of these engines. Hank; I am trying to get it started. It seems very close to catching.....but I think it is not getting enough fuel. Will take the carb down...again to see if something is amiss. Since it is a fluid drive I have the dashpot and it's linkage which may not be working correctly.....I ended up buying two kits from different sources and still had to get the dashpot kit from Roberts so the carb was apart for quite awhile and I may have something there that is still not correct. I will get it figured out. On the plus side I got the wood out of the bed today and cleaned up all the sheet metal. Last truly dirty job on the old beast is done! Yeah! I now understand why one of these trucks I looked at had a metal deck installed over the top of the old wood bed. Jeff

I bought a set of Autolite plugs at Napa a while back. They are #295. Are they the wrong heat range for our flatties? If so What should they be? Thanks, Jeff

Merle; Ya Mon.....the Doctor of Darkness himself. I've always wondered about that one. Guess he wasn't counting on me having a flashlight and some wire in the boot Jeff

As it was, mysteriously, a wire "came loose" from my distributor while I was out wandering Friday. I hope to make more rounds next year. True story: Many years ago I had an Austin-Healy 100-6. It was originally 12 V positive ground and in an effort to increase the reliability of the car I rewired it and dumped the Lucas electrics and installed 12V negative ground USA made electrics in it. This made a huge difference. Until late one winter night on the Freeway ..... I was on a transition ramp from one freeway to another when suddenly the engine just cut out. I managed to get it on the shoulder and popped the hood. Much to my surprise the low tension wire from the coil to the points was gone!!! I made a replacement and drove straight home. The next day I removed the distributor figuring the wire had come loose and would be under the backing plate. It wasn't. To this day I can only figure a Gremlin got it. Jeff

Okay....I get it. Love those Plymouth Trucks! Jeff

Dutchmeister; Many years ago I had a car that I built extensively. Once I was done tweaking and tuning my highway cruising gas mileage increased by a whopping 75%. This was accomplished without changing gearing or tire size. I had replaced the stock 1 bbl intake with a pair of DCOE Webbers, did a big valve conversion on the head and installed headers and a free flow exhaust system. In other words I got it to breath properly. By doing this I more than doubled the HP which was great.....but it was the mileage improvement that I really came to love. This was a different engine design and I rather doubt it would be as easy to get that sort of improvement out of our flatheads. I am certain with the correct mods one could probably get a gain of say 10% to 20% without sacrificing reliability. My gut feel about these trucks is that there is probably more fuel economy to be gained from changes to the gearing,etc than there is from tuning. I know I will be looking very closely at all this I get my truck roadworthy. Jeff

Hi Guy's; I have been trying to come up with the right combination for the lighting on my truck. I was wondering what some of you have done? What works? what doesn't ? etc... Halogen? LED's ? How about sharing what has worked well for you? I have a 52 3/4 ton that I intend to use as my daily driver/work truck. I am planning on leaving it 6 volt. When it comes to lighting I want it to be a safe & legal truck. I am not concerned about showing the truck so some mods to this aspect does not bother me. It has a rear step bumper which could easily accommodate some integrated lighting. Thanks in advance. Jeff

Hank; Tim, if you are really buying this, do you have a vision? Oh come on Hank.....don't tell me you couldn't see this coming? When I first saw this bus a while back I thought of trying to get a bet going. But I just figured no one here would take a sucker bet. It was never if....... I expect it will make it to Bonneville. Jeff

Couldn't go to a better home... Hank Was there ever any doubt where this bus would wind up? They belong together. It will make a very cool Salt Flats rig. Wonder how long it will take to become "The Worlds Fastest Pilothouse Bus" ? Don't know if any of you remember a LSR from the 60's called the Goldenrod. Got to sit in it once......must have been a mile long. As I remember it had four 440's in it. For a time it was the fastest piston engined car in the world. Perhaps Tim can come up a fitting arrangement for the bus. Jeff

Tim; You quack me up. Jeff ps : Gibby : Won......... Oakland : NONE

You know I spotted this thing on craigslist about a month back......was wondering how long it was going to take before someone jumped all over it. Too funny.....and oh so predictable. Jeff

Ed; You will get it sorted. Have a great time all of you. Jeff

Wow! This group is really great. It sure looked like it was there for a reason.......now I know why. Thanks for clearing this up. Jeff

Thanks Merle; That is good....for the life of me I couldn't remember what would have been missing ? Funny though it looks like "summat ought to be there" Jeff